Planking the prairie

Tools

By The Associated Press

Story Published: May 12, 2008 at 8:34 PM MDT

Story Updated: May 12, 2008 at 8:34 PM MDT

PINEDALE, WYOMING - EnCana's use of wooden mats around some of its wells in southwest Wyoming is proving to be a good thing. Instead of scraping and stripping away a foot of topsoil for new roads and well pads, EnCana workers lay down one to two acres of wooden mats for each of the well pads and connecting roadways.

Officials said the mats have decreased disturbance in EnCana drilling areas and hasten the revegetation of disturbed well sites. The sagebrush is flattened using the mat technique, but the root and seed systems stay intact, allowing for a quick grow-back period after the mats are removed.

EnCana's mat program was begun as a pilot demonstration program in the summer of 2005. It has since become a regular part of the company's reclamation efforts.

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